The
authors report the first study of the room-temperature electroabsorption effects in
CdZnTe/ZnTe multiple quantum well structures which exhibit sharp excitonic absorption
peaks. The magnitude of the Franz Keldysh and quantum-confined Stark effects are found to
be comparable to those of III-V semiconductors. With optimized structures the authors
expect II-VI semiconductors to be important components for information processing in the
visible spectrum